9965053460 | Allegory | A story, poem, or picture that can be interpreted to reveal a hidden meaning, typically a moral or political one. | 0 | |
9965053461 | Alliteration | The repetition of sounds, especially initial consonants in two or more neighboring words | 1 | |
9965053462 | Allusion | A direct or indirect reference to something which is presumably commonly known, such as an event, book, myth, place, or work of art. Can be historical, literary, religious, topical, or mythical. | 2 | |
9965053463 | Ambiguity | The multiple meanings, either intentional or unintentional, of a word, phrase, sentence, or passage. | 3 | |
9965053464 | Anadiplosis | The repetition of the last word of one clause at the beginning of the following clause. "Men in great place are thrice servants: servants of the sovereign or state; servants of fame; and servants of business." ~ Francis Bacon | 4 | |
9965053465 | Analogy | A similarity or comparison between two different things or the relationship between them. | 5 | |
9965053466 | Anaphora | One of the devices of repetition, in which the same expression (word or words) is repeated at the beginning of two or more lines, clauses, or sentences. "Careful the things you say, children will listen. Careful the things you do, children will see, and learn" ~ Into the Woods | 6 | |
9965053467 | Anecdote | a short and amusing or interesting story about a real incident or person. | 7 | |
9965053468 | antanaclasis | Repetition of a word in two different senses. If we do not hang together, we will hang separately. | 8 | |
9965053469 | Antecedent | The word, phrase, or clause referred to by a pronoun. | 9 | |
9965053470 | antecedent-consequence relationship | The relationship expressed by "if...then" reasoning | 10 | |
9965053471 | antimetabole | The repetition of words in successive clauses in reverse grammatical order. One should eat to live, not live to eat. | 11 | |
9965053472 | antithesis | The juxtaposition of contrasting ideas in balanced phrases. | 12 | |
9965053473 | aposrophe | The direct address of an absent person or personified object as if he/she/it is able to reply. "O' Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?" ~ William Shakespeare | 13 | |
9965053474 | appositive | A noun or noun phrase that follows another noun immediately or defines or amplifies its meaning. The sky, gray and gloomy as usual, carried the faint scent of dusty rain in its breeze. | 14 | |
9965053475 | Aristotelian triangle | A diagram showing the relations of writer or speaker, audience (reader or listener), and text in a rhetorical situation. | ![]() | 15 |
9965053476 | canon | One of the traditional elements of rhetorical composition -- invention, arrangement, style, memory, or delivery. | 16 | |
9965053477 | chiasmus | Involves the repetition of similar concepts within a repeated and inverted grammatical structure, but not necessarily the repetition of the same words. *Similar to antimetabole, but for this device, only grammatical structure need be reversed, not necessarily the words. "So the last will be first, and the first last" Matthew 20:16 *(also an antimetabole) "Bad men live that they may eat and drink, whereas good men eat and drink that they may live." ~ Socrates *(not an antimetabole) | 17 | |
9965053478 | deductive reasoning | Reasoning that begins with a general principle and concludes with a specific instance that demonstrates the general principle. Gravity makes things fall. The apple that hit my head was due to gravity. | 18 | |
9965053479 | denotation | The direct or dictionary meaning of a word, in contrast to its figurative or associated meanings. | 19 | |
9965053480 | diction | (1) The choice and use of words in speech or writing. (2) A way of speaking usually assessed in terms of prevailing standards of pronunciation and elocution. | 20 | |
9965053481 | didactic | Intended or inclined to teach or instruct, often excessively. | 21 | |
9965053482 | dramatic narration | A narrative in which the reader or viewer does not have access to the unspoken thoughts of any character. | 22 | |
9965053483 | dynamic character | One who changes during the course of the narrative. | 23 | |
9965053484 | encomium | A tribute or eulogy in prose or verse glorifying people, objects, ideas, or events. | 24 | |
9965053485 | epiphora | The repetition of a word or phrase at the end of several clauses. | 25 | |
9965053486 | euphemism | An indirect expression of unpleasant information in such way as to lesson its impact. casualties = deaths from a war | 26 | |
9965053487 | inductive reasoning | A method of reasoning by which a rhetor collects a number of instances and forms a generalization that is meant to apply to all instances. | 27 | |
9965053488 | invective | Denunciatory or abusive language; discourse that casts blame on somebody or something. | 28 | |
9965053489 | irony | The use of words to convey the opposite of their literal meaning. A statement or situation where the meaning is directly contradicted by the appearance or presentation of the idea. | 29 | |
9965053490 | isocolon | A succession of phrases of approximately equal length and corresponding structure. I came, I saw, I conquered. ~ Julius Caesar | 30 | |
9965053491 | litote | A figure of speech consisting of an understatement in which an affirmative is expressed by negating its opposite. The food wasn't awful. | 31 | |
9965053492 | loose sentence | A sentence structure in which a main clause is followed by subordinate phrases and clauses. I knew I had found a friend in the woman, who herself was a lonely soul, never having known the love of man or child. ~Emma Goldman | 32 | |
9965053493 | metonymy | An entity referred to by one of its attributes or associations. "The press" for the news media. | 33 | |
9965053494 | onomatopoeia | A literary device in which the sound of a word is related to its meaning | 34 | |
9965053495 | paralipsis | Irony in which one proposes to pass over a matter, but subtly reveals it. "She is talented, not to mention rich." | 35 | |
9965053496 | parallelism | A set of similarly structured words, phrases, or clauses that appears in a sentence or paragraph. | 36 | |
9965053497 | synecdoche | A figure of speech in which a part is used to represent the whole or the whole for a part. The word "wheels" refers to a vehicle. | 37 | |
9965053498 | syntax | The order of words in a sentence. | 38 | |
9965053499 | tautology | A group of words that merely repeats the meaning already conveyed. If you don't get any better, then you'll never improve. | 39 | |
9965053500 | trope | An artful variation from expected modes of expression of thoughts and ideas. | 40 | |
9965053501 | unreliable narrator | An untrustworthy or naïve commentator on events and characters in a story. | 41 | |
9965053502 | verisimilitude | The quality of a text that reflects the truth of actual experience. | 42 | |
9965053503 | zeugma | A trope in which one word, usually a noun or the main verb, governs two other words not related in meaning. He governs his will and his kingdom. | 43 |
AP Language and Composition Devices Flashcards
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